Iran says it will send forces into Pakistan to free kidnapped border guards if Islamabad does not take measures to secure their release. Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli was quoted as issuing the warning on February 17.

The five kidnapped Iranian border guards - artwork by Bozorgmehr Hosseinpur
According to a report by Etemaad daily, the five kidnapped Iranian border guards are alive

Fazli's comments come a week after Jaish-ul Adl, a little-known Sunni Islamist Baluch militant group, published pictures on its Facebook page it said were of the soldiers kidnapped in Iran's southeast province of Sistan-Baluchistan.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry reportedly summoned Pakistan's charge d'affaires, demanding that Islamabad "act firmly against the leaders and members of the terrorist group who have fled into Pakistan."

Jaish-ul Adl said in November 2013 it assassinated a local Iranian prosecutor, and in October it ambushed border guards, killing 14.